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Group asks Bono to halt Mercs 2 News
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Political activisits are calling on U2 singer Bono, as an investor in Pandemic Studios, to halt the development of forthcoming shooter Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
The game is set in Venezuela and sees players taking on a political tyrant who has taken control of the oil industry. It's already attracted criticism from the country's president, Hugo Chavez, who labelled it as an example of "psychological warfare".
Now the Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign has written an open letter to religious leaders asking for their help in stopping production on the game.
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Comments: 1-36 of 36 in total
Poster
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crazyhorse174
22/03/07 @ 13:38
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"Please Bono, halt the production of a game that will undoubtably make you some more cash to add to your ever increasing pile..."
Sorry...I'm in cynical mode today. |
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0
Taken from the letter to Bono:
'Behavioral science research demonstrates that playing violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior, particularly in children and youth.' As usual... lots of claim, little proof. The only real research I have found up till now relating media and violence it that: 1) Children are prone at becoming excited after watching any type of media. In fact the study showed that children could be more 'energetic' even after watching a 'harmless' show like Barney or Teletubbies 2) Research show that videogames are not very popular with prisoners. In fact most people who end up in prisons relating to aggression are not very media literate and read few books, watch few films and play few videogames. This letter has nothing to do with videogame violence and everything to do with politics so in the end saying the game is filth and should be banned (sic) is pure and utter oyster crap. |
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Markusdragon
22/03/07 @ 14:10
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I think the dictator has a point...
He's not a dictator though; he's an democratically elected leader that the Americans don't like because he's a socialist. |
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rhinoxious
22/03/07 @ 14:11
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I can see his point if his country is specifically named, rather than just being costalumbia or something silly.
How would we like it if an american dev made a game portraying the UK as overrun with lawless hoodies and immigrants that the forces of law and order are powerless to stop (easy there daily mail readers ;). And you play as a crack team of yankee enforcers brought in to clean the place up? As for complaining to Bono, well that's just stupid. They should complain to the US government, or take legal action, can you defamate a countries character? |
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sickpuppysoftware
22/03/07 @ 14:38
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Dear Venezuela,
If you think Bono is so great you can have him. We've had enough of his high twattery. As your country is hot he may even get away with wearing sunglasses all the fucking time. Yours, The rest of the world. |
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0
"How would we like it if an american dev made a game portraying the UK as overrun with lawless hoodies and immigrants that the forces of law and order are powerless to stop (easy there daily mail readers ;). And you play as a crack team of yankee enforcers brought in to clean the place up?"
Don't know about anyone else, but that sounds hilarious if done the right way! It's kind of Team America the game :) |
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The_Inquisitor
22/03/07 @ 15:02
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We all want the games industry to be taken seriously but why does it always have to be these South American, political nut-jobs that do?
And this is the second time Bono has been asked to step in on a games development. He's like an anti-games super hero, but with out the talent. |
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0
Pandemic are part-funded by the US military; Full Spectrum Warrior was spun off military pork-barrel funding. The US military will also doubtless have done some planning exercises around destabilising or invading Venezuela - it's just what they do with neighbours who are perceived as 'unfriendly'.
In light of that you can see how the Venezuelans are a bit annoyed. The Americans already staged a coup against Venezuela a few years ago. Personally I find the style of the game a bit crass. If you played jackbooted US thugs it would be good fun but instead pandemic have opted for idiot surfer-style Mercs on spring break ... reminds me of a song - But now it's too late You're entering Managua If you had brought your surfboard You could surf Nicaragua
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/06/07 @ 15:08
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The_Inquisitor
22/03/07 @ 15:05
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"How would we like it if an american dev made a game portraying the UK as overrun with lawless hoodies and immigrants that the forces of law and order are powerless to stop (easy there daily mail readers ;). And you play as a crack team of yankee enforcers brought in to clean the place up?"
Forget making a game about it, they should actually do it for real. : ) |
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Nippledoctor
22/03/07 @ 16:14
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And while they are at it, can they ask the guy to stop singing at all?
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Mentalist(air)
22/03/07 @ 16:38
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Mercenaries 1 was set in North Korea.
But since they've got nukes now, and Iran's got them on the way, I guess they just picked a softer target that America still doesn't like. Cuba would have been a bit too Just Cause, so Venezuela all the way! Seriously, though, Bioware/Pandemic are a multi-national companies with studios in several countries, and as is the point of this article they're owned in significant part by an Irishman. It's nothing to do with US Propaganda, it's just the writers or designers at the game studio picking stuff from the news and twisting it a bit to fit a game storyline. In fact, given the way Mercenaries 1 worked, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the faction contacts in 2 was a political opposition leader of native-Indian descent who wanted to sieze back control of the country for the people... |
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YourMessageHere
23/03/07 @ 13:08
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"I think it's a disgusting piece of American propaganda.. that I'll probably preorder and play until my fingers fall off.
My brain is at war with itself." +1 Mind you, if it does have some way to work for the venezuelans against the US I'll do that for preference. I'm almost as sick of having to be the US as I am of WWII. |
Comments: 1-36 of 36 in total
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